Cough Syrup

Put one quart hoarhound to one quart water, and boil it down to a pint; add two or three sticks of licorice and a tablespoonful of essence of lemon. Take a tablespoonful of the syrup three times a day, or as often as the cough may be troublesome. The above receipt has been sold for $100. Several firms are making much money by its manufacture.

Source: Our Knowledge Box, ed. G. Blackie

Cough Syrup

One quart of water, one handful of hops; boil these together, and strain; put in this fluid a cup of sugar, and boil to a syrup; cut a lemon into it, and bottle for use.

Source: Recipes Tried and True

Bites

Apply vaseline and burnt alum; lemon juice for bee stings ; common bluing for bites of any insect, or vaseline, lard and burnt alum can be applied.

Source: 1001 Household Hints, Ottilie V. Ames

Toilet or Face Powder

Take a quarter of a pound of wheat starch pounded fine; sift it through a fine sieve, or a piece of lace; add to it eight drops of oil of rose, oil of lemon thirty drops, oil of bergamot fifteen drops. Rub thoroughly together.

The French throw this powder into alcohol, shaking it, letting it settle, then pouring off the alcohol and drying the powder. In that case, the perfume is added lastly.

Source: The White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette

Complexion Wash

Put in a vial one drachm of benzoin gum in powder, one drachm nutmeg oil, six drops of orange-blossom tea, or apple blossoms put in half pint of rain-water and boiled down to one teaspoonful and strained, one pint of sherry wine. Bathe the face morning and night; will remove all flesh-worms and freckles, and give a beautiful complexion. Or, put one ounce of powdered gum of benzoin in a pint of whisky; to use, put in water in wash-bowl till it is milky, allowing it to dry without wiping. This is perfectly harmless.

Cream cures sun-burn on some complexions, lemon juice is best on others, and cold water suits still others best.

Source: The White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette

Burnet’s Celebrated Powder for the Face

Five cents’ worth of bay rum, five cents’ worth of magnesia snowflake, five cents’ worth of bergamot, five cents’ worth of oil of lemon; mix in a pint bottle and fill up with rain-water. Shake well, and apply with a soft sponge or cloth.

Source: The White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette

To Remove Freckles

The following lotion is highly recommended: One ounce of lemon juice, a quarter of a drachm of powdered borax, and half a drachm of sugar; mix in a bottle, and allow them to stand a few days, when the liquor should be rubbed occasionally on the hands and face. Another application is: Friar’s balsam one part, rose-water twenty parts.

Powdered nitre moistened with water and applied to the face night and morning, is said to remove freckles without injury to the skin.

Also, a tablespoonful of freshly grated horse-radish, stirred into a cupful of sour milk; let it stand for twelve hours, then strain and apply often. This bleaches the complexion also, and takes off tan.

Source: The White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette

Macassar Oil for the Hair

Renowned for the past fifty years, is as follows: Take a quarter of an ounce of the chippings of alkanet root, tie this in a bit of coarse muslin and put it in a bottle containing eight ounces of sweet oil; cover it to keep out the dust; let it stand several days; add to this sixty drops of tincture of cantharides, ten drops of oil of rose, neroli and lemon each sixty drops; let it stand one week and you will have one of the most powerful stimulants for the growth of the hair ever known.

Another:–To a pint of strong sage tea, a pint of bay rum and a quarter of an ounce of the tincture of cantharides, add an ounce of castor oil and a teaspoonful of rose, or other perfume. Shake well before applying to the hair, as the oil will not mix.

Source: The White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette

Uses for Lemons

Dirty straw hats become clean when wet with lemon juice and brushed with cornmeal.

Ink stains and rust spots vanish when moistened with the juice and hung into the sun.

Fruit-stained hands become white with the application of lemon juice.

Indigestion is relieved by the juice of half a lemon and a little salt in a cup of hot water.

Source: 1001 Household Hints, Ottilie V. Ames

Indian Cough Cure

To five cents’ worth of whole flaxseed add three pints of water. Boil fifteen or twenty minutes, strain and add the juice of three lemons, one-half pound of rock candy and one ounce glycerine. Take wine-glass of this three or four times a day and before retiring. It will cure the worst cough in three days.

Source: 1001 Household Hints, Ottilie V. Ames